For many churches it would probably be easier to count the number of congregants who are not using Facebook than to count the number who are. The popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter has exploded recently, leaving many ministry leaders wondering how they should respond. If you haven’t yet answered that question, you may be surprised to find that it is already being answered for you. There’s little doubt that your church already has a presence on Facebook, official or not. You may even have a group out there with the church name on it, started by some enterprising church member. Even worse, he’s probably a member of the youth group! Like it or not, we’re beyond questioning whether our churches will be involved in online social networking. The question for today is what difference will that involvement make?
Why You Should Be Online
For years, we have known that the most effective outreach occurs within our own social networks. What we haven’t had a chance to get a handle on is the migration of these social networks from the neighborhood and the grocery store into cyberspace. I’ve heard many sermons and have even preached a few about engaging our culture, connecting with our neighbors, and inviting people to church. The fact is, we live in a culture that is becoming increasingly private. The onslaught of telemarketers, solicitors, and pyramid marketing schemes has resulted in a culture that is suspicious and untrusting, forcing the church to seek out new and creative opportunities for outreach. Online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter afford just that kind of opportunity. The viral nature of Facebook is fertile ground for outreach. In many ways, the Athenian marketplace that the Apostle Paul visited daily is now in your living room! Conversations about wall posts and tweets (Twitter status updates) are fast becoming commonplace on Sunday morning and in church staff meetings. The church’s objectives have certainly not changed, but we need to begin to apply those objectives to ministry online.
Today, our online witness is as important as our neighborhood witness, perhaps more important when you consider your visibility within the online community. With the Facebook News Feed application, a church member’s friends see most things he/she does within the community. When members join one of the church’s Facebook groups, be it a small group Bible study or a Sunday School class, all of their friends know it. When they openly discuss this week’s small group topic or encourage one another and communicate prayer needs, their friends are listening in. When they complain about the church or about someone in the church, unfortunately, all of their friends and even their friend’s friends may see it. Our church members are already witnessing online, either for good or for bad. What they may lack is direction and encouragement from the church leadership. They, like most of us, are only now beginning to explore this new media and may not fully recognize the significance of their actions.
Taking outreach to the next level, online social networking is already connecting our world in unprecedented ways. According to the Facebook Press Room as of this writing, there are more than 200 million Facebook users, and over 70% of those are from outside of the United States. What incredible opportunity for international missions! Immediately, however, that should make us all very safety-conscious. You should carefully consider privacy settings and the information you publish in your Facebook profile. Church members should be encouraged to do the same. Most people will want to set very strict limits upon what is visible to anyone other than approved friends. If you are planning to use Facebook for public outreach, be careful what information you share on your Facebook page. You would probably not post photos of you and your children and might want to list a church e-mail address rather than your personal e-mail address.
What about the Dangers
As with any community, Facebook and other social networks open the door for all sorts of inappropriate, divisive, and hurtful behavior. That’s just all the more reason for the church leadership to be active online. Like I said previously, many or most of the people in your church are already connecting online. Our best response is to jump in and foster a spirit of accountability. In fact, the very public nature of the online community lends itself to greater accountability, something we often struggle to achieve in the church proper. Attitudes and behaviors that might go unnoticed and unchecked on Sunday morning are more open to scrutiny in the very public, online community. Mature church members and pastors who have learned the art of gentle, gracious confrontation may realize new discipleship opportunities online that might never be available otherwise.
Encourage husbands and wives to be very open with one another concerning their relationships online. They could very well be approached by old boyfriends and girlfriends. Couples should decide together if these friend requests should be accepted or rejected. I would recommend that they share account passwords and that each spouse regularly flip through the other’s inbox. This creates mutual accountability and could discourage patterns that might otherwise lead to a difficult situation.
Moving outside of the safety of the church walls is always risky, whether you are knocking on a neighbor’s door or joining a group on Facebook. Both include a certain amount of risk; both can be very effective. The biggest difference is that we tend to be more comfortable doing the former.
